First Florida panther released into Palm Beach County

An orphaned Florida panther sprinted back into the wild Wednesday, the first time one of the endangered cats has been released into Palm Beach County.

After a long ride in an animal carrier from a sanctuary near Jacksonville, the panther was taken to a dirt road in the southwestern corner of the county, a place of cattle ranches, swamps and bushy forests that's a world away from the strip malls and subdivisions of Boca Raton, Wellington and Royal Palm Beach.

Wildlife officers lowered the crate onto the road and opened it. The 123-pound panther walked out, took a quick look around, and set off at a gallop down the road, a tawny streak of speed clearly trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and dozens of wildlife officers, reporters and television news crews. After running along the road for a few hundred yards, the panther found a gap in the trees and vanished into the Rotenberger Wildlife Management Area.

"It went extremely well," said Darrell Land, panther team leader for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "The cat did exactly what he was supposed to do. We hoped he was going to run down the road and run into the bushes, and he did. The cat hesitated a second, shook his head and listened a second, and then said 'I'm out of here.'"

The nearly two-year-oldpanther has been fitted with a radio collar that will let biologists monitor his movements.

The panther had been rescued as a kitten when his mother was found dead in northern Collier County. After discovering her body, biologists who were monitoring cameras around the den discovered two kittens, a male and female, who were still alive. They set traps, captured them and took them to the White Oak Conservation Center near Jacksonville, where they were raised with minimal human contact.

The young pantherslearned to hunt deer, rabbits and armadillos to the point biologists were satisfied they would have a decent chance of survival in the wilderness. The female was successfully released Jan. 31 in Collier County. Biologists said Wednesday that she has been doing well.

The release location for the male was selected largely because it had no resident male panther that would try to kill a younger interloper.

"It's an area we know is used by panthers but the probability of it being used by a resident male is less likely, said Dave Onorato, a wildlife commission biologist. "But there are wild hogs here, there's deer. He shouldn't have any problem getting prey."

An estimated 100 to 160 adult panthers remain in Florida, occupying a core habitat stretching from west of Lake Okeechobee to Everglades National Park. Although this represents an increase from the 30 or so that were estimated to remain in the 1970s, today's panthers are killing each other and ending up as road kill in record numbers. The leading cause of death among radio-collared panthers is other panthers.

Biologists say the newly released panther faces a difficult road, trying to survive in the increasingly crowded panther habitat of southern Florida.